1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for configuring a printer and, more particularly, to a method for dynamically configuring a printer through the use of printer applets or printerlets which can be downloaded into the printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art printers utilize a page description language (PDL) interpreter, such as Adobe PostScript or Hewlett-Packard Page Control Language (PCL), resident in nonvolatile memory, i.e., ROM, of the printer for controlling the operation thereof in accordance with a print job received by the printer from a client, such as a stand-alone computer or a computer network which interconnects the printer and one or more computers utilizing a physical medium and communications protocols known in the art. A typical print job generated by a client to a printer includes PDL commands followed by print data. The PDL interpreter of the printer interprets the PDL commands received from the client and configures the printer to receive and process the print data into bitmap data which is stored in one or more page memories in volatile memory, i.e., RAM, of the printer. Once all of the bitmap data for a page memory is received thereby, the PDL interpreter causes the bitmap data for the page memory to be transferred to a print engine that prints the bitmap data on a print media.
Prior art printers include PDL interpreters that are each configured to implement a predetermined set of capabilities. Since PDL interpreters are resident in nonvolatile memories of prior art printers, the capabilities of prior art printers can only be upgraded by physically replacing present nonvolatile memories with new nonvolatile memories which include new versions or revisions of PDL interpreters and/or by adding new nonvolatile memories in the form of, for example, a printer cartridge to extend the capabilities of prior art printers.
Problems with replacing a nonvolatile memory in a printer include the time and inconvenience for a person to replace the memory as well as the need to provide appropriate technical training to enable the person to replace the memory effectively. Another problem is the delay between the time a new version or revision of PDL is needed, and thus ordered from the printer manufacturer, and the time the replacement and/or new nonvolatile memory arrives for installation in the printer. Still another problem is the need for one or more skilled programmers, either programmers of the printer manufacturer or aftermarket programmers, to implement new PDL code and the time required for such implementation.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above problems and others by providing a method of controlling a printer to implement various print configurations using a high-level interpretive language, with the functional components of the printer operating in a run-time environment of that interpretive language. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of configuring the capabilities of a printer when a client generates a print job. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of upgrading the capabilities of a printer and operating the printer in accordance with such upgrade when a client generates a print job. Still other objects will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description.